Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

N.E. Heath, a young Idaho farmer, and Mildred Kittrell, his sweetheart, had secured a marriage license in Lewiston and were headed to Kendrick, Idaho, to get married. 

Then the conductor said, “I dare you two young lovers to get married on this train. And, say, if you’ll take that dare, I’ll provide the preacher, too.”

“You’re on,” Heath said. “That is, I’m game, but it’s up to Mildred here, she has the last say.”

They both looked at her.

“Well, no dare like that will get by me,” Mildred said. “Go and get your preacher.”

The conductor searched the train and returned with a Lewiston minister. He duly performed the ceremony “on the rear platform of the day coach just as the train was crossing the Clearwater bridge.” Every passenger “climbed on the seats to get a better view of the proceedings.”

The conductor, apparently thinking his role in the event had earned him special privileges, edged “toward the bride, expecting to be the first to kiss her.”

“But the bridegroom was too quick and gave his new wife such an embrace that the passengers yelled for an encore.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1964: Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.”